Nell refusing to get carried away with his Great Britain selection

First published
in Sport
by Andy Warren, Deputy sports editor, awarren@swindonadvertiser.co.uk, @AndyWarren_

AARON Nell was proud to have been named in the initial Great Britain squad for the World Championships but isn’t getting carried away by the prospect of representing his country in Lithuania just yet.

The squad will be cut from 35 to 27 ahead of a training camp in April and be reduced to 23 before two warm-up games with the Netherlands ahead of the World Championships in Vilnius a fortnight later. Although he did make his GB debut in Hungary last year, Nell isn’t expecting to make it to this year’s tournament.

“It’s obviously great to have been called up but it’s a big squad he’s picked and there’s a long way to go before the tournament,” he said.

“It’s good to be in there and hopefully at the end of the day I get a chance but we’ll obviously have to wait and see. There’s a lot of very good players in there and if I make it in the great, but I’m not really expecting to with the amount of great players on the list.

“There’s a training camp and some games to come before the championship and the squad will be cut before then so I have to try and do the best I can.

“If it happens, then it happens and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t, I just have to go there and give it my best.”

Nell, who is back with the Wildcats on a two-way deal from Elite League Sheffield, was immensely proud to represent his country last year and is hopeful of doing more of the same.

“Every player has so much pride when they play for their country and even though we were relegated last year the boys still were proud and we had a great time together,” he said.

“It’s a good week to be involved in and it would be great to be there again.”